Adamanta Release Tour

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  

ADAMANTA

Season 1, Episode 1: Adamanta

by T. Y. Carew & Jess Mountifield

Genre: Science Fiction

 

A team of humans is willing to face almost insurmountable odds to save the human race from annihilation. But quite how safe from discovery and attack is the planet the research team has been secluded on?

Matt has spent her whole life helping her parents with research that could change the fate of the entire human race. She believes it’s time to take it to the next stage and use it in active combat, but is she really ready to join the war and fight for mankind?

Xander has dedicated his whole life to the military, keeping humans throughout the galaxy alive, no matter the risks. He’s struggling not to become disillusioned when, time and again, running away is the only option. Can he find the one thing humanity needs to turn the tide, and can he cope with that thing being a person?

 

“Come this way, Colonel, and we’ll get the demonstration underway,” Mr. Adair said, breaking into his inspection of the facility. He gave the man a brief nod, and allowed the scientists, followed closely by Drew, to lead the way.

“You said the metal can be used to harness brain-waves?” Drew said, speaking so fast Xander had to replay the question in his head to work out what had been asked.

“Yes. It is molded to a particular person’s thoughts and then responds to those thoughts. With some people it’s easier than with others, however.” The scientist grinned as they were led down a corridor and around a corner. The right hand side switched from the standard metal paneling to glass-filled sections running across the side of a training area. Inside, a young woman stood. She was barely above five foot, blindfolded, and her face was stern. Xander took in the array of dull gray short swords criss-crossing down her back. A matching small circle of the same sort of metal was fixed to her temple in line with her eyes, and several more were dotted about the floor, ceiling and walls.

Opposite them was a row of screens, each of them showing the picture of a camera feed that matched up with the dots around the room, except for one in the center that was almost black, but not quite the blank color when off.

“Our daughter, Mattie, will be demonstrating for you today. Of everyone here at the facility, she is the most proficient with the technology.” Mrs. Adair took a small step forward and pressed an intercom button on a small control panel set into the wall. “You ready, honey?”

Mattie gave an almost imperceptible nod but didn’t open her eyes. She then inhaled as her mom pressed a few more buttons. Three drones, designed to imitate Beltine Dairos, sprung from containers in the room and rushed the girl in the middle.

Still unable to see, she side-stepped the flailing arms of one as the two topmost swords in her stack of six flew out of the sheath and into her hands. Whirling, she cut down the second drone. The move was followed by a ducking roll underneath the live laser fire of the third. She landed in a crouch, facing it, and the sword flew in a straight line out of her hand to impale the drone right through its central nervous system. At the same time, another sword flew from the set on her back to block the downward strike of the first drone.

Xander’s mouth fell open as five small pellets darted out of a pocket on her thigh and tore into the circuits of the final drone standing. While Mattie stood up, the training robot hit the deck, sparking as the pellets ran a high voltage charge through it.

“Miss Adair!” her father yelled.

“Mattie?” Concern played in the mother’s voice, and Xander found himself wondering what had happened to make her parents cross with her after that demonstration. She evidently felt the same, as she ripped off her blindfold and looked their way. Immediately, the dark on the middle screen changed to a view of him, Drew and her parents through the glass that separated them. It was her own viewpoint on the display.

“What?” she asked when her father shook his head and her mother tutted.

“There was only meant to be one drone.”

“Why? I can handle five now. Three’s easy.” She grinned and nodded at Drew and Xander. Without her even looking, the swords moved around in the air until all of them were back in the holder strapped to her back. “Hi.”

“That was amazing,” Drew said before Xander could close his mouth and think of a suitable reply. Her smile widened, showing her teeth and lighting up her deep brown eyes.

“And live-fire, young lady… what were you thinking?” Mr. Adair said as he walked through the door that had just opened in one side of the room. Xander followed and went up to the nearest drone to inspect the damage Mattie had done. Mattie shrugged and walked over to him.

“How badly damaged is it?” she asked.

“Its circuits are probably fried.” Drew hurried to stand beside Mattie and gazed at her, still impressed.

“You punctured the right fluid system, too.” Xander straightened and met her gaze. While she stared up at him, the small metal pellets she’d fired at it worked back out of the holes to come together in a group in front of him. After a few seconds of holding them there, Mattie reached out with her hand and took hold.

“Wow.” Drew stared, wide-eyed.

 

releases May 8, 2017

 

The mining shafts on Kudos have been producing increasingly smaller quantities of the mind-controllable Adamanta, but when you’re fighting an undefeatable enemy you have to use every advantage you can gain.

Colonel Xander and his crew are there to secure as much of it as possible for the human military force. When an explosion traps three of the crew in the mine, the race is on to save them as well as ascertain whether the small operation is under attack from the formidable Beltine.

The explosion might have been written off as an accident if Marx, the Kudos safety engineer, hadn’t found evidence of Xander’s own transport pod having been rigged with enough explosive to destroy the whole mine and every breathing being in its vicinity.

Who would want Xander and his crew dead? And what deadly secrets does Marx harbor?

releases May 15, 2017

 

Xander’s new mission puts his crew into the path of a Beltine hive ship. No one has survived such an encounter before.

But then, no one else has highly skilled Adamanta-equipped fighters on board, either. Even so, choosing to pick a fight with the Beltine is not a clever idea. Will the humans make it out alive once they enter the lion’s lair?

Join Xander, Mattie and her friends on this fast-paced adventure to find out.

 

Episode 4 – Anathema – Coming July 15th 2017

Episode 5 – Coming September 15th 2017

Episode 6 – Coming November 15th 2017

If you want to make sure you don’t miss out, you can sign up for our newsletter here.

T. Y. Carew is the pen name for an entire group of authors. They’ve come together to write the Adamanta series and other works in the same universe. So far, they consist of Stephen P. Scott, Andrew Bellingham, Ella Medler and Jess Mountifield. They’re a quirky bunch of writers, with a variety of genres under their belt and different elements to their styles we’ll hope you agree make an interesting blend. One thing they definitely have in common is the love of diving into a book and going on an adventure, be that reading or writing one!

This episode was written by Jess Mountifield.

 

Jess was born in the quaint village of Woodbridge in the UK, has spent some of her childhood in the States and now resides near the beautiful Roman city of Bath. She lives with her husband, Phil, and her very dapsy cat, Pleaides.

During her still relatively short life Jess has displayed an innate curiosity for learning new things and has therefore studied many subjects, from maths and the sciences, to history and drama. Jess now works full time as a writer, incorporating many of the subjects she has an interest in within her plots and characters.

When she’s not working she can often be found with friends, enjoying a vast array of films, ice skating or trekking all over the English countryside.

You can find out more about the author and her upcoming projects by following her on twitter or facebook, or at her blog.

Facebook ✯ Website ✯ Twitter ✯ Goodreads ✯ Amazon

***WRITING OPPORTUNITY***

 

Would you like to write an Episode?

The Adamanta project is all go now. The first and second episodes are out on pre-order (and so will the third be very soon), and episodes 4 and 5 are almost ready. We’re going for 6 episodes a year, and we have one slot left for this year, and of course, spaces from next year onward.

We have collated an Author Info Pack, which you can look through if you are considering contributing to this ongoing series. Genre: sci-fi. Length of episode: 20k words approx. Stay in the Adamanta world, but write your story. You have a core of ready characters, but can write your own and use as many or few of the original ones as you like. We’ll need to keep the series consistent, but other than that you have space to play.

What we’re looking for: good story, good writing, adherence to deadlines and a willingness to help promote the whole series.

Ask EllaMedler@papergoldpublishing.com for the link to the Info Pack if you’d like to have a look.

Writing setting in Fantasy Fiction

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  

For fantasy fans, setting is of particular importance. Two weeks ago, I wrote a post about why setting matters. Setting matters in all fiction, but is especially important in fantasy literature. While plot is, of course, important and nothing can replace well developed characters, fantasy fans choose the genre largely because of the setting. They like the magic. They want to escape the banality of their lives and escape to new and innovative worlds. Give them that world, or they leave and not come back. Lacking adequate description was once a weakness in my writing that I have worked hard to fix, so I want to share what I have learned and, hopefully, save you some time.

Writer’s Digest has a great post about Basic Elements of Setting that I highly recommend. In this post, I’m going to cover a specific technique of description that I call Big Picture/Specific Detail.

Big Picture

To feel oriented, the reader needs to see the big picture of the setting you are describing. When a character first enters a space, you should give a general description of what is there.  As an example, see the description from The Goddess’s Choice  of the princess’s room:

Carvings may have looked something like this

The princess gestured toward the huge portrait of the Princess Danu that covered one wall of her bedchamber. The long-dead princess was laughing as she galloped across the fields with her auburn hair flying out behind her in the wind. The stars on the forehead and chest of her horse shone against its gorgeous coat. Samantha loved this painting, which was just as well because it was bolted to the wall and couldn’t be removed without tearing her chambers apart. She’d decorated the rest of her bedroom to match. Tapestries of horses covered the walls. Her dressing table, armoire, and large four-poster bed had horses carved into the woodwork. A quilt, embroidered with horses and stars, was spread over the bed. The mantle over her fireplace sported figurines of horses in gold, silver, jade, crystal, and precious stones. Every new ambassador added to her collection.

Here we get the big picture of Samantha’s room, which is decorated all in a horse motif. This both orients the reader to the space and also gives the reader insight into Samantha’s character. She loves horses.

We see a similar big picture technique when Robrek, the peasant sorcerer, first enters the space in the first chapter of The Soul Stone. It also demonstrates how setting can reveal character. Although it is the same room, he describes it much differently.

A horse like this perhaps

For the first time, he looked around her room. One entire wall was covered by a painting of a princess, resembling Samantha, riding a Horsetad. Besides the painting, the room held two huge wardrobes, carved with horses and stars in intricate detail. He opened them and found them full to bursting with dresses in silk and satin, lace and velvet, so many she could wear a different one every day for an entire year. Robrek shook his head. Although his father had been considered wealthy by those in the Valley, Robrek had never had more than a couple changes of clothes. Figurines of horses in gold, silver, jade, crystal, and precious stones arrayed themselves on the mantle. Ten years’ proceeds from his father’s crops couldn’t have afforded one of them.

Readers need to see the big picture so that they feel as at home (or not) as the character does.

Specific Detail

The big picture orients the reader, but it is the specific detail that intrigues. You never want to give a catalog of everything that is in a room or even on a dresser, but picking out a few specific details to describe more thoroughly will make your setting come alive. In the first scene described above, Samantha later describes two specific items:

Not quite the same, but gives the idea

Samantha picked up her silver-backed brush from the dressing table, a gift from the Neaserian ambassador that was inlaid with an amber Horsetad; diamonds marked the stars at its forehead and chest.

Pausing in front of her favorite tapestry—a white mare at the edge of the forest, helping her newborn foal stand, she wished she were heading for the stables instead of the ballroom.

In the second scene, Robrek makes note of the same tapestry and one other specific detail.

A life-sized horse made of smoked crystal dominated one corner. It had a gold mane, tail, and hooves and wore a gold saddle studded with emeralds. On the wall was a huge tapestry of a white mare at the edge of the forest, helping her newborn foal stand. The mare reminded him of Roberta, the horse he’d helped Samantha choose at the horse fair where they first met.

The specific details make the setting real and vivid. In describing setting, make sure give your readers both the big picture and the specific details.

 

What are your thoughts about setting? What authors do you think do it well? Comment below.

 

 

Holly Evans and Ink World

Jamie Marchant Posted on by 1

About a month ago, I posted a review of the first book in Holly Evans’s Ink Born series, Stolen Ink, along with an interview with the author.  I absolutely loved the book, and immediately, pre-ordered the second book in the series. The good news is that the second book in the series, Blood and Ink,  is being released on May 5.

Blood & Ink

It turns out that saving the day comes at a cost. In this case, my home in Wildrun. Oh, and my freedom.

Keirn called in a few favours with his friend, Fein. In return for a new life and some help hiding the fact that I’m an ink magician, we belong to the elf that runs half of Prague. Some rumours say he runs half the continent.

There’s an art thief in town, and Fein’s decided it’s my job to find and stop them. I didn’t dare point out that I’m a tattoo magician, not a detective.

The real problem is, I’m terrified that this is a slippery slope, and I don’t like where it’s going.

 

 

 

In celebration of it’s release, Holly describes for us how tattoo magic works in Ink World.

Tattoo Magic and Ink World

Jamie very kindly offered me a slot on her blog today to talk about something from what I refer to as my Ink world, the setting for my Ink Born series. After much thought, tattoo magic seemed like the most logical choice.

The protagonist of the Ink Born series is a tattoo magician, as that’s something I’d wanted to write about for a good while. There’s something fantastic about tattoos as an artform; I feel that they lend themselves so well to the concept of magic. I currently have two tattoos and plans for four more; they’re something I’ve been interested in for a good while.

When I sat down to actually write the story, I realised I needed to pin down how the tattoo magic itself worked. Where did the magic come from? What exactly did the tattoos do?

In the end, I took the same approach as I did to the entire Ink world, I gave it everything.

There are two types of tattoo magicians in the Ink world: those who tattoo animals and those who tattoo sigils and runes. The animals are quite simple. They’re sentient creatures who’re bound to their recipient and can communicate with them down a telepathic bond. It isn’t full speech though; it’s more feelings and concepts.

The sigils are a little bit more complicated as they require the tattoo magician to learn how to construct the sigils. A sigil in this case is a design or a symbol that alters the person or the reality around them when magic is pushed into the sigil, thus activating it. The sigils range from making the person a little luckier or stealthier through to increasing their aptitude with maths or being able to use other forms of magic at a low level.

There must be limits on these things, else they’ll run rampant, and there’s far too much room for extremes and abuse. So the ink network and its boundaries came into being.

The ink network is the magical network where all tattoos come from and are linked to. When a tattoo magician brings through a new tattoo, they connect themselves and the recipient of the tattoo to the ink network. The ink network allows some of its magic into the tattoo, and thus the circuit is complete so to speak.

The limits that are in place are quite simple and clear cut. When someone has a tattoo ready to come through, they will get an itchy niggly feeling. A tattoo magician will feel that, to Dacian, the protagonist, it’s like a buzzing sensation. The tattoo magician is always connected to the ink network on some level; that’s what makes them a tattoo magician. So when they are approached by someone to bring through a tattoo, they open themselves up to the ink network and paint the design into the recipient’s skin.

The recipient gets absolutely no choice in the tattoo they receive. The ink network has chosen something for them, and that is that. If someone were to try and bring through another tattoo, say they were given a sparrow and they wanted a hawk, then there would be severe consequences. At best the recipient would be horribly deformed by the magic, at worst they’d die an agonising death.

Unfortunately for the recipient, the network is also rather insistent. They may not like the design and may not be willing to take the risk of bringing through another one. In that case, the tattoo will begin to itch more and eat at the back of their mind more insistently until eventually they crack and get the damn tattoo.

Fortunately, there are no bad tattoos. Not for the recipient anyway. The network would never bring through a sigil that gives bad luck for example or an animal that would (severely) harm its owner. There are, however, a few animals and sigils that could cause quite significant harm to the world around them. It’s not often that they are pulled through, but the ink network does like to keep things interesting.

There we have it, a quick look into the tattoo magic in my Ink world. A place where almost anything is possible, except vampires, because I refuse to write vampires. 😉

 

If you like urban fantasy, I highly recommend Holly’s books, and I’m excited for Blood & Ink to appear on my Kindle.

Guest Author, Sean Frazier

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  

I met Sean on Twitter. He’s a good dad because he shows his daughters Wonder Woman, the greatest superhero ever.

When Sean Frazier was growing up, he never really paid attention to the written word. It wasn’t necessarily something he enjoyed at the time. Once he graduated college, however, the spark ignited and he decided to write something and try to get it published.

And it was…well, not-so-great. Truly, it wasn’t the highest caliber material ever produced. But the spark was still there, even if it was simply buried deep within.

Eventually, that overly-loquacious, meandering work of wordsmithing became his first book, The Call of Chaos. It took many, many years, but Sean finally rekindled that drive and found that he did, indeed enjoy writing.

When he’s not writing, Sean enjoys running, playing video games, and spending time with his family. He is a bona fide Halloween zealot, loves hot wings, is a grand master at telling terrible jokes and, oh, his cat can beat up your cat. (Jamie’s note: His cat has never met Snowflake.)

Interview

1, Tell us a little about yourself?

 I love all things geek—video games, tabletop/RPG, computers, sci-fi, and fantasy to name just a few. I am an avid runner. I love to read, but I have a short attention span. I also very much enjoy telling stories. I can’t draw, and I don’t enjoy playing my guitar for an audience, so I entertain with words. I am also a total dork.

2. Tell us something about how you write? i.e. are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you have any weird or necessary writing habits or rituals?

I try to write little bits during the week, but most of my writing happens on Sunday mornings. I hide in the corner of a coffee shop and peck away at the keyboard for 3-4 hours. The rest of the week is when my muse gets to work.

My writing is organic. I usually have a beginning and end in mind, and then some ideas for what is going to happen in the middle. I don’t outline or plan or plot a course. The writing happens when the words decide it’s time. My characters often derail the story and blaze their own trails and each story evolves on its own. Sometimes, it is magical how the words seem to write themselves. Other times, it is maddening.

3. Could you tell us a bit about your most recent book?

The Call of Chaos is the first book of four in The Forgotten Years series. It follows a young man named Cor’il Silvermoon. Shortly after he is exiled from his home, he discovers that history has lied. The Realm quickly falls into turmoil as monsters and magic emerge—they are no longer confined to books and children’s stories. Cor’il is unwittingly pulled into the conflict to discover where they came from and what other mysteries wait to be discovered.

4. What gives you inspiration for your book?

I draw inspiration from a lot of rather untraditional sources. Many people get their inspiration from movies, TV, or books. They see an element they like and they expand upon it.

My inspirations come from music, pictures, or just nature in general. I get many of my ideas while I am running with my music turned up. The other day, I saw a picture of some very funky-looking trees and immediately had ideas about them.

Even words themselves give me inspiration. Many times, I have seen a quote and thought of an entire plotline revolved around it.

5. What was the hardest part of writing your book?

The self-promotion. This isn’t really about the writing, per se, but the advertising of myself. “Hey, you should read my book! It’s awesome!…but it might have a few mistakes in it, and it’s probably not going to be to everyone’s liking.”

There are a lot of options for entertainment. Without dropping serious cash (which I cannot afford to do), it can be difficult to get noticed. I’m never one to toot my own horn, but I can’t simply say “I wrote book. You should read it…or not, whatever.”

Am I doing it right? Could I be doing more? What other options are out there? I’m a writer, not a marketer. It sometimes can be overwhelming, but I am so in love with writing that I am happy if even just one person reads one of my books and enjoys it.

6. Do you have a day job in addition to being a writer? If so, what do you do during the day?

My day job is the complete opposite of my writing. I work in IT as a Systems Engineer. That’s a simple way of saying “I design the infrastructure to keep the backbone of the company running smoothly.”

7. Tell us a little about your plans for the future. Do you have any other books in the works?

In addition to the other three The Forgotten Years books (the second book is nearly complete and the third has been started), I have been slowly working on another fantasy book that parodies many geeky things. Writing humor is tough, however. If I write it too quickly, it ceases to be funny.

I also have a lot of short stories already written from years ago. I’ve been considering compiling them into an anthology at some point.

Where can we find you online?

Blog: https://seanrfrazier.com/blog/

Website: https://seanrfrazier.com 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeanRFrazierAuthor/

Twitter: @TheCleftonTwain

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01N056U2U

The Call of Chaos

Exiled from his homeland, Cor’il Silvermoon was left to roam without direction. Bestowed with unimaginable power by the awakening Threads, he struggles to understand his purpose.

But when he discovers that terrible forces are tearing the Realm asunder, Cor’il realizes that no one can withstand the storm alone. Forced to confront the mythical monsters that pillage the land, he faces a Realm that has become much deadlier, encountering new friends, dangerous enemies, and impossible challenges.

Can Cor’il and his friends discover the source of the chaos and stop it? Or will they be forced to watch as everything they know and love is utterly destroyed, ushering in a new age of danger and discord?

Excerpt

Cor’il was awakened by footsteps, grunts and snarls. For a moment, he lay perfectly still on his side, staring directly ahead. He could see immediately around him in the darkness but could not make out any detail save for a flickering flame in the trees ahead. It bobbed up and down slightly, heading towards him and soon became apparent that it was a torch being carried by a humanoid creature he had never seen before.

He watched the creature draw nearer when it abruptly stopped and, holding the torch above its head, looked around and sniffed the air.

The flickering light of the torch was not the brightest, but it was more than enough to allow

Cor’il to inspect the creature in more detail. It had rough-looking, greenish-brown skin, wore tattered clothing and had a sword on its hip. Matted, unkempt hair fell onto its shoulders and partially obscured its face. If it was a human, it was some strange kind of barbaric human Cor’il had never encountered, but it appeared much more civilized than any normal animal.

The creature looked behind it and motioned with its arm. Several smaller, repugnant creatures emerged from the darkness, huddled around the larger one, and inspected the area. They didn’t look as tough or as sturdy as the larger one—maybe a different breed or different creature altogether?

Cor’il wanted to flee—to sneak out and hide somewhere. His head began throb again. He felt cold and started to shiver uncontrollably, but he was also sweating. He reached over to grab his satchel and his sword but his hand was shaking and he snapped a twig accidentally. Immediately, the larger creature grunted and pointed in several directions while the smaller creatures all spread out, picking up rocks and sticks and licking their lips hungrily.

Cor’il knew that he was about to be discovered. Still shaking, he scurried out the back of his shelter, buckling on his sword belt and slowly making his way towards the edge of the forest. Due to the underbrush it was impossible to move as quietly as he would’ve liked but he resisted the urge to run. Mayhaps their hearing is not very good and I can escape. By the Abyss, what are they?

 “I smell something I not smell in…long time,” a raspy voice grunted from behind. Cor’il could barely understand what it said. “Tasty flesh! Find it! Track it down! We eat well tonight!”

Cor’il’s head pounded now, and he was so cold he could barely breathe. He looked behind him. The creatures were moving out in every direction—quickly. They were hunting him! It was time to leave. But when he turned back around he came face to face with one of the smaller ones. It grinned and snarled at the same time, baring crooked, gnarled teeth. It swung at Cor’il with its rock and missed, but it was enough to make Cor’il back up and trip, falling onto his back. His vision blurred and started to go dark. He continued shivering and sweating profusely, with an intense warmth building up inside him. He remembered this feeling. This is how he’d felt back in Kuranthas when…when he had supposedly set the trees ablaze!

I guess this is how it ends.

Everything went dark.

 

What do you think of Sean? Share your comments below. And what do you think of Wonder Woman?

Five Badass Women I’d Like Brigitta To Join

Jamie Marchant Posted on by 2

Badass Woman #1– I was born in 1967 and grew up in the 70s and 80s, so I wasn’t exactly inundated with strong, powerful female role models on Television. But Linda Carter as Wonder Woman comes on to the scene in 1975 and gave me a different view of women. She may hide her identity in that of a secretary, but she’s an Amazonian princess. In the Amazon, the women rule, and they never bow to male authority. Wonder Woman undoes her hair and twirls around, and she is a superhero with a magical golden lasso and bracelets which can deflect bullets. She fights with superhuman strength and ability and never needs to be rescued. As the theme song stated, “All the world is waiting for you, and the power you possess.” Wonder Woman taught me that women can be strong.

 

Badass Woman #2: Phédre nó Delaunay from Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy series. Phedre isn’t your typical badass woman because she isn’t a warrior, but she is proof that physical prowess isn’t the only way a woman can be a badass. Phédre is sold into indentured servitude as a child and is raised to be a prostitute and spy for her master. Prostitution is seen as a noble profession in her society, which doesn’t have our society’s hang-ups about sex. Still, one would think such a childhood would leave a scar. Instead, Phédre becomes a strong woman who not only revels in sex, but becomes much more when her country becomes threatened. She uses her intelligence to uncover a plot against her kingdom, and with her bodyguard/later lover, Josselin, works to thwart it. In her relationship with Josselin, there is never any doubt that Phédre is the dominant partner. However, her power is the power of her intellect. Josselin is the bad ass fighter, but it is her mind as often or more than his skills that get them out of trouble. Phédre remains very feminine, proving the femininity doesn’t need to mean weakness. For Phédre, it is strength.

 

Badass Woman #3: Rey from Stars Wars: The Force Awakens. Rey is a strong, competent woman who can take care of herself. Yes, she receives some help from Finn, Han, and Chewbacca, but she has already almost managed her own escape before they show up. The movie keeps her focused on her heroic mission and resists the temptation to sidetrack her into a romance, which happens with far too many women in fiction. She is the one who takes on the main villain, not any of the men, and she is the one who goes to find Luke at the end. I’m looking forward to seeing her again in the next movie.

 

 

Badass Woman #4– Sookie Stackhouse from Charlaine Harris’s series. Harris introduces Sookie in Dead After Dark and does a marvelous job developing her after the 13 book series. Sookie has her fair share of trouble, chief among them is her ability to read minds. She refers to it as a disability because she can’t turn in off but has the constant buzz of other people’s thoughts in her mind. First, the inability to get some mental quiet would be maddening, and also, as she lets us know, most the time people are thinking about pretty boring stuff.  But her disability becomes her strength, and she uses it to defeat her enemies and help her friends. While Sookie never becomes a great fighter and remains a waitress throughout the series. Still, she is a strong woman who thinks for herself and always tries to do the right thing although, like all of us, she sometimes fails in this. Like Phédre, Sookie shows that there is more than one way to be a badass woman.

 

Badass Woman #5: Karrin Murphy from Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files. I loved Karrin Murphy from the moment I first met her racing Dresden to the door so that he won’t open it for her. I hate men opening the door for me. Not only does she stand up for herself as a woman, but she’s intelligent and completely badass. She can handle any weapon and hold her own in a fight. She’s loyal, and Butcher resists turning her into Dresden’s girl friend. She will only have men on her own terms.

 

 

When I created Brigitta in The Ghost in Exile, it is these women that I aspired to.  Brigitta begins the novel as a victim who is rescued by our hero, The Ghost, but she refuses to remain one. By the end of the novel, she is a badass woman, who I hope can some day join their ranks.

In the comments below, tell us, “Who is your favorite badass woman?”

 

 

Where the Wild Things Are

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  

I learned to read at four years old and have been a traveler through books ever since, so when Casey asked about the first book I read that had a big impact on me, the question took me on a journey “through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year” to a strange land where I once ruled as a girl king (yes, king; being a queen didn’t appeal to me at the time) with a boy named Max. Although Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is a children’s book, it taught me lessons that have influenced me far into my adult life.

Although I couldn’t have articulated it at such a young age, the book taught me to indulge my imagination. Max is sent to his room, but rather than pouting or being bored, he has a forest grow around him until it completely overtakes the space. He gets on a boat and voyages to land of beasts with scaly legs, horns on their noses, and rooster beaks. With these creatures, he instigates a “wild rumpus” that begins with stomping and chanting under the moonlight and continues with swinging from trees in the light of day. To me, Max and the Wild Things’ wild rumpus seemed the pinnacle of excitement. Sendak’s book showed me that the imagination is a wonderful place where the strangest and most delightful things can happen at any moment and in any place.

The book also nurtured the belief that this flight into the unknown is nothing for a girl to fear because she can return to normality whenever she pleases. When Max tires of the wild rumpus, he gets on his boat and sail back to his own room where his supper, a symbol of his mother’s love, is waiting for him. I learned that we can travel to the farthest reaches of the world and back again before our supper gets cold.

Beginning with Where the Wild Things Are, stories, both reading and writing them, became both my playground and my school room. I followed Max’s example and began creating my own fantasies. For my older sister, I wrote tales of the Man from Mars journeying to earth and indulging in all sorts of adventures, and with the exception of a few years where I lost my way I’ve been creating new escapes ever since. When a girl travels to some far off realm, she never knows what new adventure she will have or what new lesson she’ll learn.

What’s the first book that influenced you? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Hangman’s Army Blog Tour

Jamie Marchant Posted on by 2

 

L. S. O’Dea grew up the youngest of seven in a family that uses teasing and tricks as an indication of love (or at least that’s what she tells herself).  Being five years younger than her closest sibling often made her the unwilling entertainment for her brothers and sisters.

Before she started kindergarten her brothers taught her how to spell her first and middle name—Linda Sue.  She was so proud she ran into the kitchen to tell her mother. She stood tall and recited the letters of her name: L-E-M-O-N   H-E-A-D.

She’s pretty sure she has her siblings to thank for the demons that lurk in her mind, whispering dark and demented stories.

Interview

1. If you could have written any other book by any other author, what would it be, and why?

Oh, there’d be quite a few because I’d love to have written all my favorites. However, I’d have to go with the Song Of Fire and Ice series (Game of Thrones). This series is sooo good! There are so many twists and turns and the characters are so real – not one dimensional. You may hate one character one day and love that same character the next.

2. Tell us something about how you write? i.e. are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you have any weird or necessary writing habits or rituals?

I’m a bit of both. And one of my weird quicks is how I “write” my books. I plot them out while jogging around my yard. I write dialogue and fill what I call “plot” holes while exercising. Then I hurry into the house to get it all down on paper.

3. Could you tell us a bit about your most recent book?

Lake of Sins: Hangman’s Army is the third book in the Lake of Sins series – the series people are calling dark, gritty and too disturbing to put down. “This book picks up the story about five years after Secrets In Blood ended and the world is a very different place. The lower classes have started rebelling, no longer accepting their subjugation by the Almightys. The problem is that the lower classes will never win against the better trained and funded Protective Services, especially since they refuse to fight together. The Allied Classes (rebel army) needs a leader. A person everyone will follow. They need Hugh. But he’s in jail and his execution is only days away. Trinity and her friends must figure out a way to set him free and to convince him that leading their army is the best revenge he could have. This book is filled with action and monsters just like the other two, but Hangman starts the beginning of the love triangle. It’s a fun, fast read.

4. Of all the characters you have created, which is your favorite and why?

That’s a tough one because I really like a lot of my characters but if I had to pick just one, I think it’d have to be Mirra. I love her “black and white” outlook on the world. She loves who she loves – doesn’t care what anyone else thinks or says – and she does what she wants to do. She is supposedly controlled by Gaar, but not really. She will defer to his opinion – sometimes, but she is definitely her own “person?”.

5. What is your favorite writing tip or quote?

“Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.”– Neil Gaiman

I always say that if one person thinks something (doesn’t like a section, is confused, etc) then someone else will be too. I have several groups of beta readers. My niece is my first round. I send her one chapter at a time and then we discuss it. By discussing, I mean she tells me what she thinks and I listen. There are times when she tells me things that I just. DON’T WANT TO HEAR! For example, in Hangman’s Army there was a chapter that started as a summary on what had happened and then slipped into the character’s head. It was only a sentence or two, but my niece said that it didn’t read well. It didn’t read like the other chapters and it felt rushed. 

Now, fixing these issues isn’t as easy as fixing a typo. There are threads that run throughout the story and throughout the series. Fixing these things is WORK! However, she was right. I’d been lazy. So, I reworked it and she loved it. Now, before I send her a chapter, if I notice that I did that “summary” thing, I fix it because I know she’ll call me on it. She keeps me honest. She keeps me from getting lazy. 

6. Tell us a little about your plans for the future. Do you have any other books in the works?

I’m currently working on the rest of the Lake of Sins series. There should be a total of six or seven books in the series. It’s all done in rough draft format, but book six is very bare and will need a lot of fleshing out which may make it book six and seven.

Once I’m done with the Lake of Sins series, I’m going to write some more of the Conguise Chronicles series. This is a spin-off series from the Lake of Sins that tells the stories of the people who were genetically mutated into monsters by Professor Conguise.

When I’m done with that, I have a suspense/thriller knocking around in my skull along with the prequel to the Lake of Sins series – the story of the Great Death.

So, with my day job, I have years of work planned out for me.

Website: http://www.lsodea.com
 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lsodea
 twitter: https://twitter.com/lsodea
 email: lsodea7@gmail.com
 Join Readers’ Group and Get the First Two Books in the Lake of Sins Series for FREE: 
http://lsodea.com/yourfreebooks-2/
Buy Links:
This book is the third in the series–and the series should be read in order.  The first two books is the series are FREE.
links to Amazon to purchase
http://myBook.to/LOS_Escape
http://myBook.to/LOS_Secrets
http://myBook.to/LOS_HangmansArmy
draft2digital escape =https://books2read.com/u/4Xgn21
secrets =https://books2read.com/u/bo6Dn9
hangman =https://www.books2read.com/u/bzpA5Z

 

Hangman’s Army

 

A rebellion is brewing in the world of the Lake of Sins while Hugh Truent sits in prison days away from his execution.

After taking his findings about the genetic similarities between the classes to the Supreme Almighty and the Council, Hugh had been arrested for treason and all his evidence had vanished as if made from smoke.

To protect his family, he cut off all contact with the outside world while he sat in prison for over four years waiting for his execution. He has no idea that some of his reports were leaked to the other classes and that civil war looms on the horizon.

Trinity and her friends have no hope of winning the war unless they can unite the classes. In order to do that, they need someone everyone will follow. They need the one person all the classes trust and believe in. They need Hugh.

That means they have to break him out of a maximum security prison and convince him to lead their army, but that won’t be easy because Hugh wants revenge and he’s not going to let anything get in his way especially mouthy, attractive, know-it-all Trinity.

Excerpt

Trinity

As soon as they were all together, she headed toward the Mile of Fire.  It grew hotter with every step and the air became acrid, burning her nose and throat.  Sweat no longer trickled down her back; it was a full-blown downpour. 

“Are you sure the rocks are cold?” asked Jackson.

“I never said cold. I said they shouldn’t burn us to crisps.”

“I’m pretty sure you said they wouldn’t burn us at all,” said Hugh.  “I don’t recall the clarification of to a crisp.”

“Stop whining.  You’re out of jail.  You should be happy.”  He was going to drive her crazy.  The sooner he and Dad separated from them the better.

“I’ve been beaten, accused of treason and sentenced to execution without complaint but I’m whining because I don’t want to be burnt to something just a little less than crispy?”

“Yeah.  You don’t hear anyone else complaining.  Do you?”  Good thing she had her back to him because she couldn’t keep the half-smile off her face. He had the irritating gift of being funny and annoying at the same
time.  She slowed down.  She wasn’t ready for this, but here it was. 

The Mile of Fire loomed ahead.  Its shimmering waves of heat almost unbearable.  The five of them were drenched in sweat, although the closer they got to the rocks the quicker the sweat was drying.  Small puffs of steam were coming off her clothes.  It was the same for the others.  If they didn’t stop sweating they were going to be basted in their own juices.  Of course, if they did stop sweating they’d be dried like old fruit left in the sun. They had to move fast.

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The Old White Magick Cover Reveal

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  
THAT OLDE WHITE MAGICK
by Sharon Pape
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Pub Date: 11/7/2017
It’s time to work her crime-solving magic again . . .

Kailyn Wilde enjoys running her shop, Abracadabra, in the quaint New York
hamlet of New Camel, where she lives with her six cats. Her family’s
been here for centuries, and she’d like to keep up the tradition.
But the place may never be the same if a big hotel gets built, so she
does her civic duty and attends a town meeting along with her aunt
Tilly . . . and Merlin. Yes, that Merlin—though he gets introduced
to folks as her “distant English cousin.” The wizard is pretty
grumpy about being transported here, but there are things about the
modern world he doesn’t mind—like pizza.

Kailyn was prepared for a heated debate about the hotel, but she wasn’t
expecting murder. When Tilly finds the body of a board member outside
the schoolhouse, Kailyn doesn’t want any suspicion cast on the
wrong person. She plans to crack this case, even if she has to talk
to every living soul in town—plus a few departed ones . . .

Sharon Pape is the author of the popular Portrait of Crime and Crystal
Shop mystery series. She started writing stories in first grade and
never looked back. She studied French and Spanish literature in
college and went on to teach both languages on the secondary level.
After being diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer in 1992,
Sharon became a Reach to Recovery peer support volunteer for the
American Cancer Society. She went on to become the coordinator of the
program on Long Island. She and her surgeon created a non profit
organization called Lean On Me to provide peer support and
information to newly diagnosed women and men. After turning her
attention back to writing, she has shared her storytelling skills
with thousands of fans. She lives with her husband on Long Island,
New York, near her grown children. She loves reading, writing, and
providing day care for her grand-dogs. Visit her at sharonpape.com.

My Love of Books

Jamie Marchant Posted on by  

I grew up in a house full of books. The den had floor to ceiling bookcases on two walls, jammed packed with books. The hall had cabinets full of yet more books, and so that we never ran short of reading material my mother took us to the library every two weeks. We came home laden with books. I can’t count the times that I entered my parents’ bedroom to find them side by side in bed, both with books in their hands. I come from a large family, and some of my happiest memories involve all of us children sprawled out in the living room while my mother read us a story. My mother taught me to read for myself before I started kindergarten. Because of my parents, my mother especially, books were, and still are, magical things in which you can travel to any land and have all sorts of adventures.

My sister who is ten years older than me furthered my love of stories. She told me fairy tales as bedtime stories–“Midas and his Golden Touch,” “Three Little Men in the Woods,” and my favorite “The Princess and the Glass Hill.” Being surrounded with stories, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer, and it was for my sister that I wrote my first one, which involved the Man from Mars coming to earth to try a peach. She loved the story, or at least convinced me that she did, and encouraged me to write more. For her, I wrote dozens of adventures involving this Man from Mars. As I grew, my sister continued to be my writing mentor and cheerleader. Throughout high school, I took my stories to her. She’d read them and gave me guidance on how to improve them.

Of course, I learned that making a living as a writer is extremely difficult, and it was my father that helped me find a career path that indulged my love of books and would ultimately give me time to write them. On his advice, I pursed a bachelor’s and, ultimately, a PhD in literature. For homework, I got to read books that covered the history of much of the world, and in class, we talked about these books. I could imagine no better career than getting paid to talk to students about books. I didn’t think about the grading papers part of the job at the time, but even with this inconvenience, I can’t imagine a job, with the exception of being a full time writer, I’d like more than teaching others my love of books.

 

When my son was born, it was only natural that I read to him. I started doing so when he was an infant in my arms and could understand nothing more than the soothing sound of his mother’s voice. As he grew older, he learned the one sure fire way to get mom’s attention was to ask me to read to him. I almost never said no to this request because I loved it as much as he did. We graduated quickly from picture books into chapter books. We used the magical tree house to travel throughout time together, morphed into various animals with the animoprhs, and spend a magically long time at Hogwarts. I dreaded the day when he would no longer want me to read to him, but that day was long in coming. I began to read my own stories to him, and when he reached high school, we traded Harry Potter for Harry Dresden. Although the frequency of our readings decreased over time, it wasn’t until he left for college that they stopped completely.

Books, enjoyed by myself and with others, have been such a fundamental part of my life that I have difficulty understanding someone who doesn’t like to read. It’s almost as bizarre as someone saying they don’t like to eat. In writing my own books, I hope to give others some of the joy that other authors have given me. I can imagine no greater gift to the world than a story well told.

 

Who taught you to love books? Comment below.

 

 

 

Setting: 3 Reasons Why it Matters

Jamie Marchant Posted on by 2

I’m not a very visual person, so setting has always been one of the harder aspects of writing for me. I used to shortchange it as not being terribly important. This was a mistake because setting can do so much for your writing. Setting isn’t merely scenery. It’s an essential part of your story. In the real world, if we are comfortable in our surroundings, we tend to take the setting for granted, but you can’t make this mistake in creating your fictional world.

Reasons setting matters

Reason #1 :  Orients the reader

Next time you go to a restaurant or any other public place watch what the people do as they enter. Nearly everyone will quickly scan the entire area with their eyes to orient themselves before they proceed to the hosting station. In other words, they orient themselves to the restaurant. As humans, we need to feel comfortable in our surroundings. Whether or not this is an evolutionary trait left over from a more dangerous past, I won’t speculate. Just as in the real world, a person needs to know where they are to feel comfortable, a reader can’t get comfortable in your story until they are oriented to their surroundings. Invite the reader into your world. Offer them a seat and a cup of tea, so to speak. They’ll thank you for it.

Reason #2: Reveals character

A person’s personal space reveals a lot about them. We instinctively know this. When we go to another person’s house or get in their car, we look around and make judgement based on what we see. Take this excerpt from the beginning of the soon-to-be released Bull Riding Witch in which the crown princess Daulphina comes awake in Joshua’s bedroom:

I nearly gagged at the stench that filled the air, a scent that combined the reek of the inside of a knight’s armor after jousting with the odor of rotting flesh. Confused, I examined my surroundings. Hanging on the wall facing me was a portrait of a huge bull with its head down and its heels kicked high into the air, and the words “Tough Enough” written across the top in bold letters. Incredibly, a man, holding onto a rope with only one hand, sat on the bull’s back. Why would anyone ride a bull? Bulls were dangerous and impossible to control. Piled high on the bedside table were plates covered with the remains of several meals, bowls with a few dregs of sour milk, and empty bottles. The sheet I laid on was stained with various substances I didn’t want to identify.

From those few sentences, we know already know quite a bit about Joshua. He’s careless and a slob. He drinks too much and is interested in rodeo. He also has the macho thing going.  In describing setting, smell is the most under used scene. See what the scent adds to the above description.

Reason #3: Create mood

Setting can be used as an external manifestation of inner mood or emotion. Consider the difference between a Batman and a Superman movie. Superman movies are shot primarily in the day in a clean city; everything is bright and sunny. They have an optimistic feel to them in which you are never seriously concerned about the outcome and no one is really going to get hurt.  Batman, on the other hand, takes place mostly at night in a gritty and poorly lit city. There’s a greater scene of fear and unease. Things might work out all right in the end, but not for everyone. Someone’s going to get hurt, and it isn’t going to be pretty.

 

For these three reasons alone, take care with your setting. We take more next week about how to do so. For now, comment below on your favorite fictional setting or tell us another reason why you believe setting matters.